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West Butsfield
West Butsfield maps
Historic maps of West Butsfield and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all West Butsfield maps
West Butsfield photos
We have no photos of West Butsfield, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Castleside| Consett| Lanchester| Leadgate| Wolsingham| Shotley Bridge| Edmondbyres| Catchgate| Annfield Plain| Frosterley| Stanhope| Crook
West Butsfield area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about West Butsfield and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of West Butsfield
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County Durham memories
James Joseph Irvine (Autobiography) 1911 - 1990
Stretching over about a mile on the A68 road to Edinburgh from Darlington, lies the small mining town of Tow Law. Approaching it from Elm Park Road Ends, on a clear day, as you pass the various openings in the terraces of the sandstone houses and cottages, at regular intervals like colour slides, you catch glimpses of the rounded moorlands and hills over and around the Wear Valley. These glimpses of the brown or purple moorland are the redemption of this land and insignificant little town. Not that it is insignificant to the people who live there because they have, especially the older ones, a fierce loyalty to this place. Nor to me either, because that is where I was born on October 30th 1911 in one of these same little colliery cottages in Baring Street, now demolished and rebuilt with the grander name of Baring Court. In the early decades of the 1900's it was a hard place to live in. Tough, because of the harsh slavish work of the pitmen, the... Read more
The War Years in Consett
I was born in Consett at 11 Newmarket Street in June 1933, though my parents were living in Norfolk and later on in Middlesex. I was sent back to live with aunts when the Blitz really got going. I went to the CofE Primary School at the back of the church which I also had to attend as a choir boy. Consett was full of noise in those days especially outside No.11. Buses started their long climb up from Shotley Bridge, nestling down in the Northumbrian Derwent Valley. Halting in Blackhill to get their breath back, before starting the last climb up the near vertical steep incline, they arrived at Vaux's Pub opposite my bedroom window, with engines panting, shuddering, and gasping with relief at having reached the summit. Then, with a final sigh they drove on again, on the last few hundred yards to the bus station, by the market square. One of my best friends was Ronnie Maddison who tragically died in 1953 while serving in the RAF and having... Read more
Being There The Day The REX Burned Down!
I lived in Consett from the mid-fifties onwards and have many mixed memories. One distinct episode was the burning of the REX cinema. I was living in the Black Horse in Front Street at the time and remember being woken early that morning by my family shouting and running about in the house. My aunt was the Stewardess of the 'Top Club', or Consett Working Mens' Club to give it the formal title, which was right next door to the REX and we were worried for her safety. My dad and his brother were already over there getting her out along with her dog, Max, and a few hastilly chosen possessions. The snap and banging of the asbestos roofing was really loud and the flames were about 20 feet above the roof-line at the most active time of the fire. My mate actually called for me at the house and we ran around to the back of the Rex where the Police were co-ordinating things with the Fire Brigade. To young boys... Read more
Nights Out in Consett
I have some wonderful memories of nights out in Consett in the sixties. There was a pub called the Masons Arms run by Kevin and Ina Kearney and the barmaid Jenny, I think. It served the most beautiful beer in the world or so we thought, Tuckers ales. On a weekend it would be filled with all sorts of characters, Army Sam, Wilf Patta, Vince Blacky, Willy Dicken, Phil Terry, all supping those big creamy pints, and the girls would join us as well - Julia, Celia, Fred, Cath, Angela - I could go on but they were special. The juke box would be blasting out Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Animals and a few Irish rebel songs Kevin had secreted in the juke box under different names. Such happy times. From there to the Brit , same thing only the beer was Vaux {yuk]. A few in there and then on to the Mount Pleasant as long as Jenny let you in. The occasional band would be playing, mostly rubbish but... Read more
Consett in The 1950s
I was a teenager in the 1950s, worked at Consett Iron Company. We were teddy boys, had all the gear, suits, shoes ... Our nights out were Co-op dance Thursday nights. Them that had girlfriends always met them inside. Friday was a late night dance, was 10pm till 2am, we even went when we were on 2pm till 10pm shift, never any trouble but we had a good time. I remember on the Thursday night one of the lads used to play the piano, his name was Freddie Cheeseman, he went on to be famous, Freddie Fingers Lee, a fantastic pianist. We even went to Anfield Plane dance castles, all good nights. Sunday it was pictures, there was several picture houses, Rex, Plaza, Town Hall, Empire, Olympia, Roxy at Leadgate. We used to take our girlfriend, the lads that went on their own used to walk round and round the bus station after pictures came out, as lots of others did, sometimes they got lucky, sometimes they walked home alone.... Read more
The 1970s
I was born in the 1950s but, despite having memories of happy times spent in the old bus station in the late 1960s, I would class the 1970s as more my era. Us lasses would sport shaggy-cut hairstyles, mini-skirts, hot pants and platform shoes and we'd buy stuff from She Fashions. We would do a tour of the pubs, usually preferring the less classy establishments because they didn't mind if we stuck a few bob in the jukebox and danced in the middle of the floor. So each Friday night, we would all meet up in The Duke of Wellie. Our boyfriends would usually be there too but they sat in their gang and we sat in ours and we didn't really bother each other, but it was a set-in-stone rule that we would meet up in Testo's Night Club, The Bowl, after the pubs closed.
We went from The Duke to The Coach then on to The Turf for the "Go As You Please". Old Maggie always sang "The... Read more
Biography And Memories
I am writing this on behalf of my wife, nee Gena Brown from the old Stirling Castle, otherwise known as the Bottom House, but the one she remembers best is the Staneford Arms where her mother held the licence. Her Auntie Nan, Grace McDonald, had the Queens on Middle street. Gena was head nurse in the OR at Shotley Bridge hospital, and that is where we met, in 1955. Three years later we were both in Canada, and have had a wonderful life together.
